Ess Oh Ess
by WhatHaveWeDone
Summary: My contribution to the influx of fic after SOS part 2 - inspired by a tumblr post about a glance Scott and John share at the hospital.
1. Chapter 1

Standing in the sterile hospital room, a woozy yet talking Gordon slowly starting to make more sense, Scott was hyper aware of everything around him. From the soft electric hum of the life saving equipment to the shuffle of footsteps in the corridor his sense were on such high alert he was positively vibrating. Everyone was shifting slightly: nervous, worried, relieved - coming down from their own adrenaline spikes – which only made John's stillness more noticeable.

John usually had excellent posture but there was something else to him right now. A stiffness that can only come from keeping your emotions tightly under wraps. And he looked – calm. Too calm. Not the calm of an everyday-stressful shift on Thunderbird Five, or of relaxing at home with family. This was calm masking anger in a way only family would see through.

Scott had only seen him this angry once before, many years ago. Alan had just been getting into video games and was deemed old enough to play online unsupervised. Scott never found out what the other player had said to upset Alan so much he didn't touch a controller for a month, or what that person's real name was. He did find out what John did and let's just say that reset passwords and suddenly empty in-game purses were the least of their worries.

"John," he said, softly so as to not draw attention, "I know that look, and -"

"Don't," John cut across him, not even turning. He also kept his voice to a murmur, harsh as it was. "Don't give me another lecture on 'proportional response' or 'misuse of IR tech' or 'we're all about the rescue'- "

"I wasn't - "

" - This wasn't an accident or an unintended consequence. The Hood tried to _kill _my little brother - "

"I know, I - "

" - And he nearly succeeded. As soon as I'm back on Five I'm going to re-task EOS: I'll install her a hundred new processors if I have to - "

"I was going to say - "

" - with her one hundred percent focused there will be no-where he can hide. I'm going to have him."

"If you will just let me finish!" Scott hissed frustrated, and John at last turned to glower at him. Scott returned his stare, no stranger to matching his will against a head strong younger brother.

"I was going to say that we can not under any circumstances compromise the operation - " Scott raised an eyebrow as John looked like he was going to interrupt again " but at the first opportunity I want you to _hunt the bastard down." _

They shared a moment of resolute fury and John gave a barely-there nod, before turning back to Gordon. Scott had every confidence that The Hood's days of freedom were numbered, and he better hope the GDF found him first.


	2. Chapter 2

John floated calmly through the command centre of Thunderbird Five. He was calm on the outside at least, he always was. You couldn't afford to be anything less when you were convincing a scared, trapped child to stay put rather than running off in a panic, or convincing a slightly suspicious nation to grant access through their airspace.

He had stayed calm on the outside when he had guided the others to the wreckage of Thunderbird Four despite the worry worming through his gut, and almost successfully hidden the raging anger that had been stoked by seeing his little brother wrapped in bandages and casts. It was no surprise that Scott had seen right through him: seen the fury burning there and done his best to rein him in. He wouldn't compromise the operation – even the barest suggestion was offensive – but he was going to start the hunt now that his fury had been reduced to a fine steady simmer.

"EOS" He called to grab her attention. "I have a job for you."

"I hope it's a challenge" her voice chimed through the air "It can get very boring when you are as smart as I am."

"I'm sure it can." He glided to the main console, and started work on dividing up the station's resources. "I'm putting in a partition and separating out a dozen cores for you to use. You'll have to work within them exclusively for now and stay out of all other IR functions, but hopefully it won't be for long."

"Stay out? But how will you ever manage without me?" She teased.

John continued to work. "I managed just fine before you EOS, I'm sure I can remember how to do all of my job."

"If you call inefficient and run ragged fine but..." Her scolding trailed off into curiosity. "What is more important than the smooth running of Thunderbird Five?"

"I want you to find the Hood. I want to know everything about him: his childhood, his favourite food, where he likes to go for coffee. I want every shell company, every bank account, every known or even suspected associate. I want to know where he's been so we can predict where he's going. I'll start you off with all the files from the GDF."

"They've given them to you? I thought they were classified?"

"They are."

There was a pause. John continued to work. EOS broke the silence, saying slowly. "That almost sounds like you intend to hack into their database and take the data without asking. Which would be _rude_. And _illegal_."

John didn't confirm or deny that, but EOS should know by now that John did whatever was necessary to get the job done. Sometimes it was charting his brothers' a course through what was meant to be a no-fly zone because there just wasn't time to submit flight plans in advance. Or at all.

Sometimes is was _ahem _borrowing _ahem _a satellite to complete a below surface scan when theirs weren't quite in the right position.

And sometimes it was hacking into the mainframe of the planet's premier defence organisation, ignoring all the sensitive technological files and stealing just the ones he needed to give to his AI friend, in order to hunt down a murderous megalomaniac. Some rules could be broken. Especially if no-one else ever found out.

"Don't worry, we won't do any harm and Scott is aware." Or he should be, if he had thought through the implications of their conversation at the hospital. Maybe he had been too angry to think clearly, but that was a problem for later.

"I will set to work as soon as you have prepared the partition, and no longer monitor or aid in International Rescue missions as all my processing power will be dedicated to this task. Something I have observed is that at times of high emotion a human's judgement can become impaired. Be careful your anger does not cloud _your_ judgement John."

John nodded absently, working to set up EOS with the memory and power she needed while thinking through all the tasks that EOS had taken on that he would now be taking back. He was fine, his anger was under control and it would stay that way.


	3. Chapter 3

**Earlier:**

_"He's overworking again."_

_"I know. I've told him to stop but he's not listening. Again. You try."_

_"You think he listens to me? Hah."_

_"I could get Alan to take me up and I could wrestle him down."_

_"He'd never forgive us."_

_"What then? We have to do something."_

_"Yeah, but maybe not us, exactly."_

_"Ah, I see where you're going. Evil, but I like it."_

_"I'll have a word with Gordon."_

_"Bet you ten dollars I get called to help him up from the hanger rather than you."_

**Later:**

"I need you to do something for me."

"What do you need Gordon? Isn't Parker still there, I'm busy."

"No, this needs to be you John."

Gordon saw the slight huff even through the slightly fuzzy holo-image, of a man trying to keep his cool. John hardly ever showed irritation at being interrupted, barely even cracking a frown if he got a call while in the middle of dispatch. He was too professional for that. And only then if it was a particularly complex one or he was running multiple missions.

And Gordon happened to know that there were no missions right now. All Thunderbirds were safely tucked up in their hangers – _apart from Four, she was cracked and broken and he wasn't going to think about that – _and all the people were home and safe as well. There was no need for John to be busy. Not busy enough to have those black circles under his eyes.

"Fine, what is it?" John almost-snapped.

Gordon shifted slightly, trying to find a more comfortable position, but cracked ribs and a broken leg and surgery and concussion and and and made that difficult.

"I need you to come home." He said.

"What?"

"You heard me. I need you to get in that space elevator and get your ass dirt side."

"Gordon, I can't just up and leave. I'm monitoring here and have a hell of a lot of work to do since EOS is ….." John trailed off. Did he not want to remind Gordon of what happened? As if he could forget?

"Yeah, I know." Gordon hefted the data-pad to which EOS the information he requested. It detailed everything that John had been doing for the last ten days – the calls, the research, the analysis of anything that EOS had found in her search for The Hood. And there were the big gaping voids where the John _hadn't _been doing the things he _should _be doing. "She's hunting the Hood. And while she's dedicated to that – which I really do appreciate by the way – you've been burning the candle at both ends."

"You're exaggerating Gordon. Sure, I'm doing more manual dispatch than I have for the last couple years but it's nothing I've not done before. I can handle this."

"Nice try, but I don't believe you. Look me in the eye and tell me that if you weren't in zero-g you'd be able to stand. Because based on how much rest you've been getting, and how much you've been eating – or not, as the this" he waved the tablet at his brother in admonishment "tells me – I sincerely doubt you'd be able to take more than a couple of steps."

John didn't quite look him in the eye, staring off just past Gordon's ear, but neither did he lie again and say he was all right. So that was something.

"Please come home. Eat dinner with us. Get eight hours sleep. Breath some air that hasn't been through the recycler a hundred times."

"I... I need to find him."

"I know, but I need you down here."

"EOS is partitioned off, she can't monitor for emergencies."

"You can divert controls down here, just like we did in the old days before she came along."

"I... I... "

"I need you down here John." Gordon didn't wheedle or plead. He didn't need to. The cold hold facts and a bit of honesty would be more than enough. "I haven't seen you in person since before I came home from the hospital. _Please _don't work yourself to exhaustion because of me. Or because of _him. _I want to see you, real flesh and blood you, and we're worried you're killing yourself with work up there."

It could have been a tense moment, waiting for John's answer. But Gordon knew that deep down John didn't like being apart from the rest of the family for any length of time, particularly when one was hurt. _Really hurt. Almost didn't make it no don't think about that. _Although he could get wrapped up in his work sometimes he would be well aware of how much he was neglecting his own basic health, and not nearly stupid enough to think he could get away with it. John was merely waiting for someone to insist in strong enough terms that he wouldn't be guilt ridden at giving up and have the twisting feeling of breaking a promise no-one had asked for. Today Gordon was that someone and they both knew it.

_"_Ok, I'm coming down."

"Do I need to get Virgil to meet you at the elevator?" Gordon could see pride waring with tiredness on John's face. "Or I can ask Scott."

"Fine, Virgil. You ass." John said, making his decision quickly with a shake of his head. Gordon would have made the same choice – not that he'd had a choice recently – and taken Virgil's stoic eye rolls over Scott's tongue lashing any day. "I'm rerouting control now, I'll be there in half an hour."

27 minutes later Virgil helped John stagger in to the room and plopped him carefully onto the couch next to Gordon. John let his head drop back and closed his eyes with a sigh. Up close he looked even paler than on the holo-screen and he had clearly also lost weight.

"You good?" Gordon asked, giving him a nudge.

"Dizzy. It's the gravity." John cracked an eye open for just long enough to see Gordon's doubtful look. "I promise it's just the gravity."

Sure. Gravity. Wonky blood pressure could do that. As could sleep deprivation and blood sugar levels so low they might as well have been sucked into a black hole.

Without being asked Virgil shook out a blanket and let it flutter down to cover them both. They didn't need the warmth in their tropical paradise but there was something very comforting about being snugged into a cocoon of fuzziness.

"I'm cooking pizza for dinner tonight, you want to choose toppings?" Virgil asked as he passed Gordon a pillow for his back, and pushed one behind John's head.

Gordon nodded eagerly – he loved Virgil's pizza, he did something to the dough that made it just divine – but there was nothing from John's direction, already asleep. Virgil kicked a foot stool into position and lifted John's legs up to rest on top, saying: "He's going to get a crick in his neck if we let him sleep like this for too long."

"Give him just a couple of hours then, till dinner. Then we'll make him eat and then sleep in a normal bed like a normal person for once, without being strapped down." Gordon took a harder look at his brother and added "Make sure you have a couple of protein shakes ready as well."

"I'll shout when I'm ready to top the pizzas. Good job on getting him down." Virgil gave a nod of approval, and sauntered into the kitchen to start on the pizza dough.

As if John could deny him anything! Gordon adjusted the blanket around them both, making sure they were equally covered and picking up the next book from his to-be-read pile. What good was being a little brother if you couldn't get your own way once in a while?


End file.
